This Week's Top Five Stories in Sustainability
7 July
Mars has announced it is committing US$250m through the Mars Sustainability Investment Fund, targeting agriculture, packaging and ingredients.
The Mars Sustainability Investment Fund is a step towards Mars’ journey to net zero, following the Sustainable in Generation Plan.
The announcement of the fund has been released alongside the company’s Mars Sustainable in a Generation report, and is mainly dedicated to tackling emissions created from agriculture, packaging and ingredients/raw materials.
Making agriculture sustainable is crucial in ensuring long-term food security, protecting the environment and promoting social equity.
Along with tackling the significant sustainability challenges food packaging provides, single use plastics cause pollution from improper disposal, green house gas emissions from manufacturing and potential microplastic contamination.
Alastair Child Chief Sustainability Officer at Mars says: “Societal impact goals have to be built into business decision making.”
8 July
The signing of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBB Act) by President Donald Trump on 4 July marks a pivotal shift in the United States’ climate and energy trajectory.
The sweeping legislation dismantles much of the clean energy incentives established under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), while expanding support for fossil fuel activities.
The act radically alters tax credit timelines and access, setting off a rush among developers to start construction before new deadlines in 2025 and 2026.
As the US exits international climate commitments and rolls back green energy support, local governments, clean tech firms and sustainability advocates face heightened uncertainty.
7 July
To limit global warming to 1.5°C, carbon removals will be needed on a gigaton scale according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Climeworks provides carbon removals across a range of solutions including Direct Air Capture (DAC) and has passed US$1bn in funding.
This is the largest carbon removal investment of 2025 to date and will support the company’s technology and Climeworks Solutions CO₂ removal platform.
Christoph Gebald, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Climeworks, says: "Direct Air Capture has gone from experiment to essential – and we’re focused on scaling it by driving down costs and pushing innovation.
“Our hybrid model builds long-term demand while generating cash flow today, helping us grow a market that investors now see as inevitable.
“Crossing the US$1bn equity mark isn’t just a milestone – it shows that carbon removal is real, needed and here to stay.”
10 July
Carbon Direct, a global leader in science-based carbon management, has unveiled the fifth edition of its Criteria for High-Quality Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), developed in close collaboration with Microsoft.
The updated framework, released on 10 July 2025, sets a new benchmark for evaluating and procuring carbon removal projects across all major pathways, from afforestation to direct air capture.
Climate science and evolving global policy highlight the scale of the challenge: to limit global warming to 1.5°C, the world must remove 5–10 Gt of CO₂ annually by midcentury, totalling 100–1,000 Gt by 2100.
However, current CDR deployment is far below these levels.
7 July
Unither Bioelectronics, a subsidiary of United Therapeutics, has completed the world’s first piloted flight of a hydrogen-powered helicopter.
On 27 March 2025, an experimental Robinson R44 helicopter lifted off from Bromont’s Roland-Désourdy Airport in Quebec, Canada, marking a significant milestone in the quest for zero-emission air travel.
Though brief at just three minutes and sixteen seconds, the flight proved pivotal.
It demonstrated not only stable hover and manoeuvre capabilities but also the real-world viability of hydrogen fuel cell systems for vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) missions.
